Tag Archives: Ubuntu

After two years, I found the best font for (K)Ubuntu

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Two things which always I (and Madhusudan) think that Windows scores over Ubuntu would be undoubtedly -

1. Games

2. Fonts

Its upto the Game developers to release games for Ubuntu and there is nothin much I can do about it. But, there is something I can surely do to make fonts in Ubuntu clean, sleek and smooth. I have always hated the default Dejavu Sans but lived with it since I had no choice.

Then recently, when I was hanging out at the UbuntuForums, ( my second home :) ), I came across this wonderful Lucida Grande font. This is the default font used in Mac OS X and is absolutely wonderful. I liked it the moment I saw it. After googling for about 5 minutes I found the ttf and right away installed it. Damn, Ubuntu does not be default smoothen or Hint the fonts. So I followed these steps to obtain the look I needed.

Step 1. Download the Lucida Grande font.

Step 2. Extract the archive and copy the ttf onto the .fonts directory which can be found in your $HOME.

Step 3. Now we need to reconfigure the fonts configuration to get a better font rendering. Open Konsole and enter -

sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

This will popup a dialog box and ask some questions. Make sure you select AutoHinter, Always, and Yes.

Step 4. Assuming you are in KDE4, go to system Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts and Adjust all fonts to Lucida Grande size 9.

Step 5. In the same window enable Anti-Aliasing and configure the hinting style to Full. Force Fonts DPI to 96.

Step 6. Go back and make GTK applications use the KDE fonts.

Step 7. Logout and Login to experience the best fonts for (K)Ubuntu.

Happy (K)Ubuntu-ing.

A week with my new pet, Ibex

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ibex

ibex

Just when people all over the world were enjoying the release party of Ubuntu 8.10 , I stuck to hardy with my internet down on release day. You know how it feels not having a hands on with the new release even after 24 hours.  Finally, downloaded the iso the next day and boot it right away. Here are some of my observations.

1. Boot time: Extremely fast. Live CD boots just within a minute. No issues with that. Infact hoping a major turnaround in  boot time optimization by the time of Jaunty.

2. Installer: A few new features added. Graphical representation of the partitioning process was introduced. I personally liked the idea, but surely not the implementation. If you have a terribly large hard disk ( >200 GiB), then you would be wasting 10 minutes for the graphical representation to load.

3. Display: Right after the first boot which happened at about 20 minutes of Live CD, I found that my display was hopeless. I have a widescreen monitor with default resolution 1280×720. There was no way that I could change the resolution so that the display detected widescreen rather than square. The package displayconfig-gtk was made obsolete. Now, I had to rewrite the whole of xorg.conf manually. WTF?!? back to the times of manually editing (wait, did I say editing, sorry, rewriting the whole of) xorg.conf. Anyways, I did it. Finally, after a reboot, all new Ibex was ready to rock on my system. You can find my discussions with displayconfig-gtk’s developer here. (Don’t miss Madhusudan’s post there :P )

4. Applications: Everything worked out of the box. Madhusudan’s blog helped me in gtalk pidgin issues, adding a simple line barring which I did not find any application misbehaving or freezing. The all new user/user status switcher is really cool. Started liking it the moment I saw it. Firefox worked like charm and fonts this time was just appropriate as against Hardy where Firefox was completely messed up. I would have loved to see OpenOffice.org 3.0, but no. Audio and Video just worked, no hassles after installing the codecs. ( you can find my codec installation guide here).Nautilus tabbed window is another advantage.

5. Tasksel: Some more additions to make tasksel more awesome. Tomcat server and Virtual Machine host can now be installed with just a simple Enter Key. Great job.

6. Shutdown: Here is where Ibex gave me a shock. When audio rendering is ALSA, system would not shutdown. This seems to a major problem for most of us around. Hoping for a fix early. Solution – switch to pulse audio or OSS. (System -> Preferences -> Sounds)

So, finally I would rate Ibex as the best release till date (my experience and usage benchmarks), if not the best October release. What are you waiting for? Go, get Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex now. Download Here.

Wishing you all a great six months with Ibex, I sign off with lots of expectations from Jaunty Jackalope.

One line media codec installation in Ubuntu

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This simple commandline installs the most common restricted codecs in Hardy Heron, allowing you to play mp3, aac, DVD ,mp4, avi, wmv, divx and many more formats. It also installs the codecs for ripping mp3s. It also installs VLC and Exaile media players

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libsubtitles-perl vlc vlc-nox exaile

Who says Ubuntu does not play MUZIC ?

HowTo: Connect to internet in Ubuntu for DataOne

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This is a simple guide for connecting to internet for Ubuntu for BSNL DataOne users.

Make sure you have a lan(ethernet card). All my efforts to find a solution for usb modem have failed. Better buy a lan card, costs only 200 bucks.

Step 1: Make sure all connections are intact and power, link and lan lights are on in your modem.

Step 2: Hit Alt+F2. Type network-admin. Enter your password if you are prmopted for.

Step 3: Select Wired Connection. Then Disable roaming mode in the check box.

Step 4: Select Static IP in the drop down.

Step 5: Use the following addresses

IP adderess :  192.168.1.100

Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0

Gateway : 192.168.1.1

Press OK.

Step 6: Select the DNS tab. Enter the following OPEN DNS.

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

Press OK.

Now you are done. Open Firefox and test your internet. Enjoy.